Women's Tennis Secures No. 3 seed in WCC Championships

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – As the No. 63 Santa Clara women's tennis team closed out the regular season with a 6-1 win over Gonzaga and a 4-3 victory over Portland last weekend, the West Coast Conference announced the brackets and match times for the WCC Championships in San Diego, Calif. beginning on Wed., April 24. Based on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranking tiebreaker, the Bronco women have secured the No. 3 seed and will play the winner of the No. 6 seed BYU versus No. 7 seed LMU match in the second round on Thurs., April 25 at 9:30 a.m.

If the No. 3 Broncos win on Thursday, they will play the No. 2 Pepperdine in the semifinals on Fri., April 26 at 9:30 a.m.

The tournament will take place in San Diego, Calif. at the Barnes Tennis Center with three women's matches starting at 9:30 a.m. on Wed., Apr. 25 followed by the men's matches at 12:30 p.m. The Championship is set for 9:30 a.m. on Sat., Apr. 27. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"We are going into the tournament expecting to win. We finished the season tied for first and we beat the No. 1 seed Saint Mary's during the regular season," explained Bronco head coach Ben Cabell. "We know it's going to be tough, but we also know that there's not a team out there that we can't beat. This year is the first year we are going in with that confident mindset. It's a nice feeling."

Santa Clara wrapped up the 2013 regular season with an 11-9 overall record and a program's best 7-1 record in the WCC. The Broncos quest to the top of the WCC began in March with solid wins over USF, BYU, and LMU. The lone loss came on Mar. 30 from Pepperdine by a score of 6-1 in the Waves favor. One of the highlights of the season was when Santa Clara defeated No. 40 Saint Mary's by taking four singles matches to win the match, 4-3.

Last year at the WCC Championships, the Broncos entered as the No. 5 seed in the tournament. They bested No. 8 Gonzaga in the first round and upset No. 4 LMU in the second round. Santa Clara fell to No. 1 Pepperdine in the semifinals by a score of 4-1.

Santa Clara broke into the ITA rankings at No. 58 on April 9 and now stands at No. 63 going into the WCC Championships. In addition, junior Katie Le is currently ranked at No. 28 nationally—the second highest ranked WCC player behind No. 23 Jenny Jullien of Saint Mary's, who Le beat 7-5, 7-6(4) on April 7.